UTRA-FDD is an example of a third generation mobile communication system, in which a communication network infrastructure establishes communication with various mobile entities in a radio access network.
In the radio access network, communication takes place from the network to user equipment (UE) in the downlink, and from the UE to the network in the up-link.
For the purpose of communicating, there are provided two types of transport channels—dedicated channels and common channels. A common channel is a resource divided between all or a group of users in a cell, whereas a dedicated channel is by definition reserved for a single user.
In a typical UTRA-FDD system, there are two common channels for the uplink communication: the random access channel (RACH) which is mapped to the physical random access channel; and the common packet channel (CPCH), which is mapped to the physical common packet channel.
In current techniques radio access bearers are allocated to the common channels in the UTRA-FDD system on the basis of resources determination, such as network capacity.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved technique for optimizing the use of common channels in the uplink of a communication system.